ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel says he would “love” to have President Trump on his show, but the White House is decidedly lukewarm on the prospect. 

Mr. Kimmel, who has frequently mocked Mr. Trump and was recently suspended for comments he made about the person accused of shooting Charlie Kirk, was interviewed this week by a Bloomberg reporter, Lucas Shaw. 

Mr. Shaw asked if the comedian had requested that the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

“No, I haven’t,” Mr. Kimmel said. “I wouldn’t necessarily be interested in Brendan Carr on the show.”

However, he said, “I’d love to have Trump on the show for sure … I’ll ask him.”

A White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, signaled that the president would not be interested in the offer, telling The New York Sun, “Reacting to anything Jimmy Kimmel says would require me to watch his show, and I have much more entertaining things to do — like watch paint dry.”

Mr. Kimmel was suspended last month after he said that a “MAGA gang was desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” The comment came after Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, said the suspect held left-wing views.

Amid the outrage over his comment, two of the nation’s largest station groups, Nexstar and Sinclair, announced they would preempt his show due to his “insensitive comments.” Mr. Carr also appeared to threaten ABC and the station groups by saying they could voluntarily deal with Mr. Kimmel or they could take the “hard way,” which would involve action by the FCC. The chairman later insisted he was not making a threat and was simply stating that anyone could file a complaint with his agency, which it would be obligated to investigate. 

Nearly a week later, Mr. Kimmel returned to the air and addressed the controversy, though he did not offer an apology. He stated that it was not his intention to “make light of the murder of a young man.” He tearfully noted that before his controversial remarks, he had posted a message on social media “sending love to [Kirk’s] family.”

“Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make,” Mr. Kimmel said. “But, I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or unclear, or maybe both.”

Mr. Kimmel said he understands why people are upset with his comments and stated that he does not believe Kirk’s murderer “represents anyone.”

Despite telling viewers that he understood some people felt his comments were “ill-timed or unclear,” he told Bloomberg on Wednesday he sees no problem with what he said. 

“I didn’t think there was a big problem, I just saw it as a distortion on the part of some of the right-wing media networks, and I aimed to correct it,” Mr. Kimmel said. 

When Mr. Shaw asked if he “felt” his comments had been mischaracterized, Mr. Kimmel said, “I didn’t feel like it. It was intentionally, and I think maliciously, mischaracterized.”

While he is back on the air with all the major station groups carrying his show, the late-night host does not appear to be enjoying any sustained ratings boom. 

On September 23, the night of his return, nearly 6.3 million Americans tuned in to watch, even though the show was inaccessible for roughly 20 percent of the country, a significant increase from the 1.8 million viewers he averaged in the second quarter of 2025. On YouTube, his monologue received more than 15 million views.

However, two days later, his show averaged 2.3 million viewers. And on October 2, after Sinclair and Nexstar decided to carry his show again, his audience dropped again to 1.9 million viewers. 

In the coveted 25- to 54-year-old age demo, his show drew in 265,000 viewers on October 2, down from the 1.7 million in that age range who watched his first show back after his suspension.